


burning II

by poor_sickies



Series: tumblr prompt fills [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Burns, Injury, M/M, Other, can be seen as either platonic or romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 20:38:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20606954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poor_sickies/pseuds/poor_sickies
Summary: Apparently there’s other fic I wrote before with the same name. Well, it’s a different kind of burning.





	burning II

“Put him down! Get me the disinfectant!”

“Right here, Coran!”

Lance stands still, staring, almost in a haze, as he hears the voices around him blurring into distant screams.

Fifteen minutes ago, he had known to pick Keith up and run to his lion when he saw him on the floor, nearly unconscious, with his chest armour covered in that strange, glowy substance.

Keith’s chest plate was now pretty much eaten away, and it’s not even the corrosive liquid that scares Lance the most - it’s the way Keith wheezed, struggling to breathe, and it’s hard to tell if it was from the pain or from some side effect of it.

Lance had gone limp like he is now after Hunk took Keith off his arms, to carry him to the infirmary. Climbing down his lion’s ramp, it had been easy for Hunk to see Lance was way too distraught.

But now, at the infirmary, Lance can’t seem to be able to get closer to the bed Keith is in, where Coran is quickly cutting away at the remnants of the balck undersuit, showing off the red blisters burnt into keith’s chest.

“Oh man - I - I can’t-”

“Step away, then - Allura!”

He sees Allura step in from behind the cabinets, holding bandages and some white containers, and going to Coran’s side.

“Right here, Coran.”

They’re ripping Keith’s black undersuit all the way to his hips, and Allura moves to hold his legs down.

Keith is still out of it, eyes opening and closing, and trembling with pain.

A warm hand touches Lance’s shoulder.

“Hey, man.”

It’s Hunk, but his voice is tired, strained. Lance shivers.

“I’m gonna take a little break, yeah? Let’s go outside, they don’t need us here, and you probably don’t wanna see-”

“AAAARGH-”

Keith is thrashing on the table, now wide awake, but Allura and Coran hold him down firmly, while Coran dabs away at the blisters with the disinfectant.

“It’s okay, Keith. We’re almost done,” Coran tries to reassure, wiping away the corosive substance from Keith’s chest. “I’m sorry, lad, I know it hurts-”

Keith’s eyes are wide open, and if he was struggling to breathe before, it’s a hundred times worse now. He’s crying openly, sobbing, trying to free his arms from Coran’s graps to hold his own chest, but with no avail.

Lance stumbles closer, despite Hunk’s efforts to keep him away. Kneeling beside the bed, he holds Keith’s right hand, and rubs the inside of his wrist affectionately.

“It’s gonna be okay, Keith. I’m here, just hold on.”

*

Coran stays true to his promise, and it doesn’t take much longer for the toxic substance to be cleaned away.

Unfortunately, Keith doesn’t take very long to pass out, both from pain and exhaustion.

The substance, Coran says, had completely eaten through Keith’s chest plate, and a big chunk of the undersuit, and then went through skin. The blisters and burns will be painful, and would have to heal a little before Keith can go in the cryopod.

“He’ll probably wake up with a bit of a headache as well, but hopefully the burns won’t get infected,” Coran explains, gently tucking a blanket around Keith’s legs.

The rest of the team steps outside, to take a shower and change, as recommended, so that there would be absolutely no remains of the liquid. But Lance is still sitting on the floor next to the bed, unmoving.

“Come on, dude,” Hunk pulls him up, “you heard Coran. We gotta shower. The quicker you do it, the quicker you can be here for him.”

Lance nods, and walks away with Hunk’s help. That is, before he completely breaks down in Hunk’s arms.

*

Admittedly, Lance does feel a bit better after a shower.

Hunk tells him that they had moved Keith to his own bed, and that he seemed to be stable enough.

Seeing Keith in his room makes Lance feel a little less anxious, but it’s still hard to see him like this. He seems asleep rather than unconscious, which is at least a small victory, but still looks too small and fragile, and Lance keeps imagining the red blisters in his chest-

At least now there are clean bandages wrapped around his torso, but some of the burning still peeks out, spreading to his collarbones.

Lance kicks off his slippers and lies down next to him, careful not to touch Keith, and lets himself rest a little.

*

“Hng- ugh-”

Lance opens his eyes and turn to the side.

“Keith?”

Keith is half propped up on his elbow, eyes squeezed shut in a grimace as he clutches his chest.

“Hey, hey, calm down, don’t move too much,” Lance says, placing a hand on Keith’s back and gently guiding him back down.

Keith groans. “The acid…?”

“Yeah. Got you in the chest, and you gotta let it heal for a couple days before cryo healing.”

Keith closes his eyes, and lets himself lean against Lance, who puts an arm around him to stroke his hair.

“How are you feeling?” Lance asks, finally, with a soft voice.

“It hurts,” Keith admits, and his voice cracks a little, “feels like my chest is burning. My head hurts too.”

“I’m sorry,” Lance says. He’s always a bit thrown off when Keith is this honest with him about how he’s really feeling. It’s good, because it’s something he’ s been trying to get Keith to work on, but still worries him, because it means Keith has no energy whatsoever to pretend it’s not bothering him.

“I can go check if Coran has something-”

“No,” Keith interrupts, and grabs at Lance’s arm weakly, “no, don’t go. Just stay with me.”

“O-kay,” Lance answers, a little surprised. “Okay, I’ll stay. I won’t leave.”

Keith buries his head into Lance’s shoulder and nods, letting Lance pet his hair softly. Lance chuckles a little, somewhat amused by Keith’s sudden want for affection.

Once again, he wishes Keith straightforwardnes had come in a more pleasant situation. Right now, he’s just hurting and craving physical contact, so Lance vows to give it to him.

“Damn, you must be feeling really terrible,” he comments when Keith grabs onto his t-shirt too. He doesn’t answer, and keeps breathing against Lance’s neck, not as quietly as Lance would like. “Hey, just try to get some sleep. I know you’re in a lot of pain, and you need to rest. I’ll be here when you wake up, I promise.”

Keith sniffles against Lance’s shoulder, but nods quietly, and lets Lance’s touch lull him to sleep.


End file.
